Aliens in Cinema

The newly minted Roswell International Sci Fi Film Festival is looking for eager filmmakers to fill out its schedule. Firstly, they’re looking for screenwriters. Submit your 12-page (or less) film script by May 6 (entry fee is $15) and you could be given a $1,500 grant to film your movie, June 25 through July 2, at the festival’s Seven Day Shoot Out. It’s like the Duke City Shootout, only ... in Roswell. You can also register now for a Roswell summer film camp, a 30-day intensive short-film boot camp, or submit a finished sci-fi/fantasy film for consideration. Deadline for film submission is June 10 (and will also run you $15 per entry). The festival itself is scheduled to take place at the Roswell Museum and Art Center in early July.

Compellingly awful adaptation argues the merits of capitalism

By Devin D. O’Leary

Online searches for Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand's controversial 1957 magnum opus, spiked recently. It wasn’t some coincidental alignment of college lit classes driving the traffic. It was the surprising theatrical release of Atlas Shrugged: Part 1. The seemingly out-of-nowhere feature debuted in a meager 300 theaters this past weekend, prompting hordes of curious to ask, “Is this what I think it is?”

ABC dumps daytime programming

By Devin D. O’Leary

If you’re a dedicated watcher of daytime soap operas, you probably already heard. ABC has canceled its two long-running soaps “All My Children” and “One Life to Live.” With a grand total of four soap operas left on network television, I think we can officially declare that the era of soaps is over.